vjd3

Driving my 97 C2, clutch starts slipping in 1st, pull over, oil gushing out by front cooler. Waiting for flatbed, but if it's leaking at the cooler, why would the clutch slip? No low pressure light, so I think all is well motorwise, glad I stopped quickly.

MarkD

Wow, sorry Vic.

Not sure why the clutch would be slipping AND you would lose a line or oil cooler, that is odd.

Maybe there was enough oil on the road from the cooler that the rear wheel was spinning?

(prepare for the BP jokes )

trophy

I think the best way to seal that leak is with a large amount of high explosives.

CorrdoBrit

or plug the hole with one of those useless, self-serving BP exec's

Davies

Weird. I know the Tips have a tranny oil cooler up front...But AFAIK manuals don't.

cdmdriver

Better hide the oil spill, the government is a little touchy about those nowadays.

vjd3

Spare me the BP jokes, please.

First look appears to be a blown oil cooler. Hoping I got it shut down before anything went amiss and that it was just wheelspin due to oil under the car.

Garth S

+1 on wheel spin ( no LSD?).

The rest is all speculation until the RF wheel & front wheel well liner are removed.

vjd3

No limited slip on the car; shop (Moorespeed in Austin TX) pulled the rim and liner, will cut open the filters just in case.

CalvinC4S

Oil on the tires feels just like clutch slip, +3.
No, im not going to say how I know.

vjd3

Well, the verdict was "the oil cooler has a pretty good hole in it." The car was dumping oil all over the flatbed. What a mess.

New cooler on, great oil pressure, everything sounds normal, the shop says. Dodged a bullet, apparently. Can't imagine what might have happened at 80 mph on the freeway. I just drove the car from Boston to Austin three weeks ago.

I've never heard of an oil cooler blowing like that. I definitely didn't hit anything while I was driving, there was no oil on the garage floor where I had pulled out 20 minutes earlier.

trophy

Great bullet dodging, glad you found the issue.

vjd3

Hole in cooler ...



Just a little oil!

CalvinC4S

Glad to see you where not at speed.

Arena993

Great save Vic. Did it look like a weak point in the cooler or do you think something may have hit it (although that would be a slight chance). I have never seen that before. Good for you that the car is back on the road.

Mike